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Recognizing employees

The advent of Social Media has opened up a vast array for marketing,promotion and creating excellent P.O.M for anyone and everyone associated with it,whatever you want to promote or send out or market all you gotta do now is spread it like fire on Twitter,Facebook,Blogs etc. its as if you now have a huge trumpet to gather all the armies of Gondor ( yes i love Lord of the Rings), and thus you can promote your things almost anywhere and everywhere in the world,to whomever you want to… you are in complete control.

many a times within organizations,even in your own organization you might have felt the abundant you,and misuse of social media, and i am sure a few of your colleagues or even management might have heard from the IT administrators on the extensive use of it.

However wouldn’t it be great if you could use this for creating an atmosphere of appreciation and recognition for your employees. You can use social media as a acknowledgement tool for your employees along with it being a low-cost medium to show your support towards them.

here’s how :

  • Publicly recognize your employees accomplishments; posting a story on your brands/products Facebook page or on the company blog can help you in promoting your employees within the organization, and making others motivated towards productivity,plus its good advertising for the brand itself.
  • Boost up the company morale Real-time; almost everyone is on Facebook or some other form of social medium nowadays, so showing employee recognition on the social media sends out a signal that the employers are connected with the employees and care about their well-being it also encourages peer-to-peer acknowledgement; friends leave comments,congratulate,retweet and share news further etc. helps employees keep motivated.
  • The best way of recognizing employees on social media is through:

Facebook: the most widely used social medium,the more you recognize people on it the better.

Twitter: Tweeting and re-tweeting employee news,congratulations and other things help in spreading the news further and faster.

Company blog: if your brand or product runs a blog its always a good idea to let all the other employees know about any good news, acknowledgments and even employee promotions on it, this way the employees know that their good news is being circulated throughout the organization, people will not only praise them but will also be motivated to make an effort in having their accomplishments recognized.

Gifts: show appreciation towards your employees by sending them virtual gifts,it could be as simple as sending them something on Farmville :P,a simple congratulatory e-card or a online movie ticket, just something to make them realize that you are connected with them and that you care.

BE WARNED Though, there might be repercussions, not everyone likes to have themselves publicized on social media, there are people who like to keep the “lime light” off them as much as they can,so when you send out that “status” or Tweet that congratulatory note be very sure that the person you a referring to in those updates/notes is OK with what you are doing, because  social media also means exposure..but the difference is, its public exposure strapped onto 2 rockets :D.

Your very own Social Media Ambassadors…A guide

The main focus of any brand from day 1 has been to be in the mind of the consumer “Its” consumer as long as it can be,in the outside world this is made possible by offering promotions,putting up billboards, getting brand mascots and what not, however,in today’s marketing environment with the inception of social media and online mediums becoming a normal part of all marketing campaigns, companies and marketers should also start paying attention towards how to maintain those online customers and brand “loyals” they have.

As long as brands want to increase their online and social media presence,fellowship and engagement more effectively, they will have to create relevant,genuine and interesting custom based and community-oriented content for their consumers. Another solution is by giving these consumers a chance to be the brand representatives.

Social Media Ambassador campaigns can be very effective,especially if they are run with people who are super active with Facebook,Twitter or LinkedIn and/or they are super bloggers. how a brand benefits from it is ;

  • if the representative is super active he would definitely have a vast following on the social media making him an “influencer” so they can spread the “brand word” within the relevant communities.
  • if the Brand is successful due to the ambassador, the ambassador is likely to be bestowed with not only a long lasting relationship with the brand,but also a key spotlight by the brand on the ambassador.
  • the consumer/target audience wins, when they are provided interesting and exciting content and things to look at/read/experience from the person/people (ambassador) who they listen and like.

so quickly and briefly lets see how we can do this;

how to set up a Social Media ambassador program :

 

  • Identifying “talent”: the first step towards starting a social ambassador program is through researching and selecting a whole pool of probable talented candidates who can represent your brand on the Social Media front. Many a times companies tend to take this “recruitment” process on their own so that they could maintain total control. however some brands also leave this process to be open sourced, this way everyone/anyone is allowed to be a part of the process and the brand promotion already starts well before the actual program itself through word of mouth.
  • Selecting the “talent”: ok so after you/your brand has identified or shortlisted potential ambassadors,now comes the time when you need to select people out of the shortlisted list. for this you need to look at a few things;
  • How good is the social REACH of the person, how far stretched are his existing followers or contacts.
  • What is the persons PERSPECTIVE regarding the brand?
  • Is he an INFLUENCER within his circle, how much do his network contacts listen to him.
  • Would the person be a good MEDIA FIT for your future promotions, for e.g if you wanted a video testimonial from the ambassador to put up on Youtube or FB.
  •  Managing the Ambassadors:  once the brand/you are done with the    above processes, you need to put in processes and regulations to monitor and manage the access and activities of the ambassadors, sometimes professional talent comes with managers, but if you are hiring crowd sourced ambassadors then they need to be properly trained in the “ways” of the brand so that they can understand what exactly they need to do for you.
  • What to hold back: you need to set filters on how the ambassadors are to communicate with the audience, giving them a free reign over everything can make you and your brand lose control over the communication being disseminated, hence always remember what to say out loud and what to hold back.
  • Maintaining Longevity:  with the Social Media brand ambassador campaign almost done and complete, you just have to maintain a long relation with the ambassador or this will not end up well for you,as a followup to the campaign you can do things like,putting up videos by the ambassadors, shooting their testimonials,getting their comments on the product/brand and creating themed competitions around it. etc, this way the ambassadors maintain that good impression about your brand and this way you would be able to keep your “brand call” on for a longer period. 🙂 Cheers

Using Social media professionally..Job seekers guide

More and more organizations,both local and international are now turning towards Digital and more prominently towards social media for shortlisting and choosing candidates for jobs, it is  quite prominent now when a candidate goes in for an interview he is asked about his “Digital literacy and his Social Media competencies”.

More and more companies and recruiters are now focusing towards the social media when it comes to highlighting potential candidates for jobs,by going through “their” networks and social media influences. for all those new job seekers out there here are a few tips which you guys can probably use :

  • Make your Social Media profile as strong as your Resume; companies and recruiters nowadays look for up to date information on job seekers so if you are sending in a resume be sure to include your updated and complete Linkedin,Twitter and Facebook profile addresses in it.
  • Like i have mentioned countless times before Social Media is all about being “social” or socially active, be part of groups,industry discussions,topics and pages related to your field, create a connection with your field influencers, have online discussions and interactions with them, people/companies/recruiters should KNOW that you exist in the market, and are an active online participant of whatever industry you are in,this makes it easier for recruiters to spot you out.
  • Social media has created a culture of openness there was a time when Job seekers had to call recruiters and try to get in touch with them, and they often failed at this. Social media has allowed job seekers to break this barrier,job seekers now can not only call recruiters or hiring managers but can also often visit their social media profiles before contacting them.Job seekers need to connect with recruiters or hiring managers on the social media, if you cant reach them directly, subscribe to their facebook profile,follow them on Twitter, stay updated on what they are putting up online regarding job openings or other news. try building a good online relationship with them.
  • Your Networks will help you in landing yourself a job, companies in today’s economically shaken surroundings have cut down on advertising for jobs,Companies look towards their employee’s social networks to share jobs and attract the most qualified candidates. The more extensive your personal network is, the greater your odds of encountering these unadvertised job opportunities. Grow your network simply by being more social,interact with people within or even outside your professional industry,get to know friends or friends, if you cant maintain direct contact try subscribing to them or following them on Twitter,LinkedIn, where ever.

Establish your online professional brand and presence now. Your dream job is gonna follow you 🙂

Social Media Apocalypse

The advent of social media not only bought a drastic change in the way people communicated around the world,but even in the tiny spec of a nation called Pakistan, social media took the country by storm, there was a time when people used to get their kicks out of chatting with complete strangers on chat platforms like Msn,Yahoo chat, and the all time shady MIRC. That was “interacting with random people” for us, it was our pinnacle of joy it suzy167 would reply to us on Yahoo chat saying “hi ASL, how are you cutie” and we would reply “im doing great whats your ASL” and one thing would lead to another and there would be Picture trading on Private messages, the more unlucky ones would get similar messages which would start turning into slightly sleazy replies only to find out later that the  person you were having an “intensely sleazy” conversation with was in reality a bot; a computer generated program which would run a loop of replies to all your questions*sigh*.

anywho, after countless encounters with suzie’s167s and beautygirl975s (both humans and bots), i finally stumbled upon Orkut one day, after a few friends at college told me about this “amazing Website” where you can put up your picture and add people and visit other peoples “profiles” and talk to them,write testimonials, make new friends “FROM OTHER COUNTRIES” O_O…. Life would never be the same for me “The Count” was going INTERNATIONAL.

Enter Facebook Stage Left, The world goes insane,people jump with joy, teens,young adults and anyone who spent considerable time on the internet got possessed by it…EVERYONE wanted to be on Facebook,everyone wanted to write testimonials for their friends,people start visiting each other on their profiles, the concept of “wall comments” emerged, people “Poked” each other and got poked back,communication took a totally different turn for the better with Facebook.

Life moved ahead and so did Facebook,soon came a time when people from all over the world were connecting with each other, old lost friends,important colleagues, “bosses” :s every one was getting acquainted virtually, and then it happened…..PEOPLE WERE NOW CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER 24/7 365, Facebook had taken over the world, along with its sly little sidekick Twitter, Facebook had finally converted normal people into Social Media Frenzied zombies, their food was not flesh but the “hours” they would stay connected on Facebook and their aim in life was to “Like” and “share” every possible bit of information no matter how useful it might be with every one and everywhere.

Facebook had taken control of our lives,we had to put in every detail of every minute in our lives as our status so that the masters (Facebook) could keep track of our whereabouts, ” im taking a crap” , “i am leaving my wife” , ” i just had Chicken tikka masala for lunch”, Twitter followed every step of the way. the Fombies ( term i created for Facebook zombies) needed constant “food” they would not sleep they would not go out,they would not watch Tv, all they wanted was FACEBOOOOOOOKKKKKK..

The Fombies have since multiplied exponentially over the past years, growing in thousands and infecting millions at a constant rate, the Facebook organization has spread its virus worldwide mercilessly sparing not even a single soul,news has it the it is developing a new program where unborn babies and men sperm will be injected with drug  of sorts whereby these unborn babies still in the moms womb would be able to create their Facebook profiles telepathically, and would be able to chat,upload pictures from inside the womb   and tell their folks what they are feeling.

The social media apocalypse which was imminent struck us and we never even said “ouch” . Long Live the Apocalypse Long live my fellow Fombies. :[

What I Learned from Mr.Jobs…Steve Jobs.. :D

Dedicated to the Maestro himself,the late Steve Jobs. Sleep Now Mr.Jobs you did this world a favour.

Steve Jobs passed away and left behind frenzied followers, enthusiasts,Design geeks, nerdy programmers,developers but by far and foremost “thinkers,thinkers who THINK Differently”.

Social Media Networks flooded on the day of his passing, Twitter,Facebook,Google, people and tweets were crawling out of the wood work to write,express feelings share the sorrow and celebrate the life of the great design Maestro and tech genius Steve Jobs.

I too 😛 being part of the whole “Me too” fad victim, went along with the whole thing, i didn’t even know Steve (Sniff), for me he was just the guy who made people look super cool and sold them gadgets which were super expensive even after which people were crazy about them. i don’t think half the people who posted condolences and respects to Mr.Jobs on Facebook even had a hint of who or what the guy REALLY was, and just what he had done for the world. His contribution to society and mankind was not in the way he had revolutionized design and technology,in my opinion it was he “HIMSELF” the greatest contribution to/for society.

ok all verbal bollix aside i bought Steve Jobs book since i saw this was the “latest” fad which had come up since his passing, didnt actually read the whole book but i somehow learned a few very amazing lessons and things from it,(actually till the part that i had read).

  • if you need to do some,or get something done, YOU will have to do it yourself. no one is going to come our help you out in it. so instead of sulking in your couch “extensively” planning to do something, Just get your lazy bum up and actually do it.
  • have the WILL and the POWER to change what you feel is wrong around you, like Mr.Jobs said “either through actions or through sheer force of will”.  if you set your mind to changing something have the will to keep it going and you will succeed.
  • there are things/situations and factors around us which cannot be controlled, but that does not mean you stop controlling things which are under your control, control as many things as you can, to that the final outcome is what you want it to be, so that it itself is an extension of you, that how Steve did it.
  • Humans are bound to make mistakes, humans are not the “perfect” beings, no single person in this world is perfect, hence he/she does and will make a mistake soon or later, its owning up to those mistakes that really separate “real” people from “people”. Own up and face the music,you just might learn a thing or two from it.
  • Never underestimate yourself and your potential, you might be smarter than you think. 🙂
  • Like the “Hulk” used to say ” Don’t make me angry,you wont like me when i am angry”. YOU should have this kinda “insane” gene built-in you at all times, creativity and “genius” demands a free flow of thoughts,expressions and emotions. When you own a brand a product YOU have every right to be super emo about it, if its going wrong SCREAM be angry, if things are going right be IN-YOUR-FACE HAPPY,LET IT ALL OUT IN ANY CASE :).
  • Nothing beats BEING YOURSELF. If you start getting cautious about how people look at you, how you will look in front of them you shall LOSE YOUR MOJO.
  • Learn HOW and WHEN to PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN, a successful and true leader does not have room for emotions in his professional endeavors, you need to make decisions which might rockbottom your popularity graph,but if your only concern is professional success and to actually make a mark in the world, this should not be a concern.

This is just about how much i read Stevies Book, will “try” to read the rest later :P. Before i leave a quote i read by the Maestro himself

“If you haven’t found it yet,keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart,you will know when you find it. Like any great relationship,it just keeps getting better and better as time rolls on.” 🙂 Cheers, Rest well Mr.Jobs.

Look at me…Buy ME : Making your Brand Work in the Social Media era

Enough yapping about What social media is? how social media work? blah blah. We now come to most basic of marketing questions, what do marketers want?….. and NO its not “high brand recall” or “creating a  brand image” it all comes down to how much moolah your brand is raking in, in the real world profits dictate future promotions and “loyalty” of the marketer towards his brand,if the marketer does not believe in the brand himself, he cant make a profit out of it even if hell freezes over.

Since i mentioned before digital has now become a natural part of many organizations and marketing plans,it has also provided a platform for brands to break conventional marketing barriers and excrete sales out of potential customers who might not be within a brands reach conventionally.

so in the spirit of  “marketing”,how do you make branding work on the social media; you start with.

  • researching how many people from your target market are on the social media. CREATE A SEPARATE FACEBOOK COMMUNITY.
  • have a constant stream of PARTICIPATION within the community.
  • keep your peeps engaged on the page, if you notice participation from someone in particular on the rise, ENGAGE WITH THEM DIRECTLY,others will notice.
  • if you have a brand which is a hit among the target audience, and you have “loyal follwers to it” good for you. People want to talk about a your brand, give them reasons to talk about it, CREATE GREAT CONTENT around it.

your customers can be spreading word about your brand through various different channels:

  • they follow it.
  • they tweet about it
  • they paste Facebook updates on it/about it
  • they retweet about it.
  • they put up links, videos, pictures about your brand.

USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.

  • Most customers/users post only positive updates regarding a brand (females are much kinder in this aspect 🙂 )
  • Generally its been seen that users who have “liked” a brand on facebook, have a larger number of followers and are greater influencers than people who are introverts on the Social Media.
  • Another excellent way of “humanizing” your brand on social media is through creating a PERSONA for it.create a character around the brand,bring it to life by giving it a name for e.g. fido dido, direct all your posts through that persona for e.g. fido dido “likes” this, fido dido commented.Create engagement through it.
  • Send promotions/Coupons on your brand community, make discounts and coupons available for online as well as physical users.
  • consumers would like to get updates about your brand on and off, the most effective way is by short updates through Facebook, consumers prefer email notifications to a certain extent, but consumers absolutely are not fond of offline ads brands place about their promotions/ other things.

Bottom line, be THERE for your consumers, interact with them continuously through the social media,keep them interested…things should work out jusssttt fine for your brand then :D.

 

Make an impressive Social Media customer experience

It seems you have launched this amazing brand for the Youth. Youth that is hyper and way too emotional when it comes to brand loyalty and interactions.now since you are a “new age” marketer yourself,you want to go all out on social media and promote your brand like there’s no tomorrow, but social media comes with its share of good news and bad news when talking about customer/brand interactions.

the bad news is, if you by any chance be it accidental or not slightly hurt the customers experience with the brand you risk not only tarnishing the brands image you also risk tarnishing on a bigger platform in front of target audiences from around the world, soooo the damage done to a brand on social media is exponential :s.

The good news however is, just as customer complaints travel at ligh speed through the social media, so do compliments 🙂

So how do you insure a good customer brand experience on the social Media, here are some pointers:

  • Use the basic essence of Social Networks,which is “a place for people to meet and talk”. YOU should create A PLACE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS TO MEET AND TALK on the social media.
  • Make Social Media a regular part of your CUSTOMER SERVICE. you add UAN numbers and email addresses for complaints, add your brands social media link too, BUT….BUT be ready to have a plan to act on any queries or complaints received….you wont want to get caught with your pants down :).
  • Your Facebook and Twitter followers do not translate into the actual number of people that may be involved in your brand, many brands have a far bigger number of customers than the number on their social media pages, use this data base translate these customers INTO your social media fan base, interact and engage with them there keep them busy with your brand, hold online promotions and competitions on your page to keep them happy and involved.
  • Another important approach towards creating a customer experience on social media, BE PROACTIVE,be proactive in interactions with your followers, compliment them, answer their questions effectively and efficiently, tell them about things,put up interesting statuses. MAKE THE BRAND HUMAN.
  • MAKE YOUR TOP SOCIAL MEDIA PARTICIPANTS FEEL IMPORTANT, reward them, since they have been so loyal you could tell them a few things, maybe about a upcoming promotion in advance or develop a loyalty point system for them, this in turn helps creating these influencers’  in serious brand advocates.
  • CONTENT IS KING,always remember that unique,interesting and reader friendly content is what wins you the game in brand communications,give em something special….could be facts about your brand,could be tips for your brand..just give them something new to talk about and read regarding your brand so that they are kept interested in it.
  • Social Media IS the place to STAND OUT,The more interactive and engaging your social media presence, the better. In part, social media is a little anti-social because there can be a lot lost in plain text. By giving your fans a true voice on social media, or encouraging participation through photos and videos, you humanize the experience that much more.

so thats it,this is my take on how to create a better customer experience on the social media. the rest is just “simple” 😛

Digital Marketing Plan for Dummies :D

So you have to make a Digital marketing plan eh! . i have been bugging a friend of mine who himself is a pretty decent Digital Marketing Specialist to share a generic digital plan with me, but he never would (primarily because hes a lazy bum 😛 ) soooo me being a lazy bum myself finally dug around a few places and found something that just might be helpful for budding Digital marketers around here.

lets start :):

First off,in order to start of a Digital Plan you need to keep one thing in mind regarding every Digital Campaign:

  •  you need to implement the key elements, monitor the results and make corrections to the plan as you move on.

so What exactly are the “Elements” (oohh scary) you need to look into when you are making a Digital Marketing plan.

  1. Website: its never about developing a website,anyone can develop a website ( well almost anyone 😀 ) its about creating that balance between content and visual representation, where to place what how NOT to clutter everything on one page,where to provide the right kind of information and where to discard un-important info.
  2. Search Engine Optimization: Once you build the website, make sure that the structure and the text is SEO-friendly. Keep updating the content. The aim is to be among the top 10 listings on Google, Yahoo and other search engines. 😀 ( isn’t it always ).
  3. Web 2.0 Strategy: The word itself sounds hard as hell,dont freak out, Web 2.0 is simply collaborating and synergizing a two-way traffic that brings the customer or partner voice to you. It may be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or the industry forums where you can run your campaigns and post company news but more importantly, listen to the members, gaining an invaluable feedback mechanism.
  4. Mobile Marketing: With a super influx of mobile phones, sms packages, event smartphone apps, it has become a natural way of life for including mobile marketing in all marketing programs. So you dont forget OK.
  5. Email Direct Marketing:  It has become a very basic element of Internet marketing. Practically, every company implements it, but do it with opt-in and unsubscribe options.

now that you guys must have atleast a slightly clear idea about the elements which are used in developing a Digital Marketing plan,not all campaign require that you use all these methods of communication/marketing in them, but you can easily take a good combination of these elements and make it a part of your plan.

The most important part is to remember, how to monitor results for all the elements mentioned above being used in a digital plan,because in the cyberspace exposure and expansion of content and communication is what determines the success or failure of an online campaign.

see you peeps around.

I like Digital..but… Doesn’t mean i am TECHNICAL…JEEZ

considering the is my first post on my new blog, i will try to keep it simple and fun instead of forcing the usual bullox about Social Media and Digital down you throat.

There has been an amazingly increasing trend of “Digital” in Pakistan lately, everyone wants to be a part of the “Digital Age”, its the latest high for all tech geeks,tech savvy hormonal teens (and even adults) ,while a small part of the “Adult” generation are showing receptiveness towards this phenomenon as well.

BUT…

What all these above mentioned people (and some other people) fail to realize is that, being Digital does not mean being “technical”, “dude you are so into digital you must understand all the languages and c!@# going on behind a website”. “bro making this website must be child’s play for you since you are all digital.”

Dudes,bros, just because a guy is “digital” does not mean he is ace at developing apps,websites programming…jeez that is what software engineers and developers do 🙂 (and of course super geeks) ;P.

let me just shed some light on the topic,a person who is associated with the “digital” field or is part of the “Digitalsphere”, mostly contributes to a campaign or project by sharing ideas and dropping strategies on how to execute a particular thing on the online front, how to spread it,promote it, engage audience/target market towards it through the internet,and how to take it beyond the boundaries/barriers of conventional promotion and marketing, this could be done using social networking tools,websites and applications, this could be done through Social Bookmarking tools, through online videos,unconventional mediums such as SMS and email marketing, and a slightly new phenomenon called “Blog Marketing”. These are a couple of things to start with,the rest will come with time my peeps :).

So, the next time you see a person with “digital” in his profile do not start picturing him with website templates and binary codes frolicking over his head. He is just a normal guy with a hint of imagination in him :). cheers